About budgets for Criteo campaigns

You can create and manage budgets for your Criteo campaigns right in the “Budgets” tab within Management Center. This article explains the different types of budgets, how to create one, and best practices for managing your budgets.

What is a budget?

A budget is the maximum amount of money you would like to spend across your Criteo campaigns. Criteo offers multiple types of budgets so you can choose which type best aligns with how your budgets are structured.

What types of budgets are available?

You can set one budget across all of your campaigns or create separate budgets for each campaign.

Uncapped budget: you have no set spend limit, allowing you to optimize your spend and maximize performance based on your advertising objectives. This is a good option for marketers who don’t have a set budget with Criteo and want to maximize their campaign performance.

Monthly budget: The maximum amount you're willing to spend in a given month. This is a good option if your Criteo budget does not change each month.

Capped budget: The maximum amount you're willing to spend either for a specified time frame or until it runs out. This is a flexible option for marketers with a budget that changes often.

How do I add or change my budget?

To add a budget, click on the "Add Insertion Order" in the Budgets section within Management Center. From there, you can choose the budget that's right for you.

Uncapped budget

Choose this budget type when creating a new Insertion Order. This will replace any existing budgets that you have set.

Important note: An uncapped budget will not limit your spend, so if you have any budget limitations, this is not the right type for you.

Monthly budget

Choose this budget type when creating a new Insertion Order and follow these steps:

Monthly cap: the maximum amount you're able to spend monthly. This is not a spend commitment nor will it guarantee you will spend this entire amount each month.

Activation date: when you want this budget to start each month.

End date (optional): the date your monthly budget will stop. The end date is NOT the date that the budget is renewed each month. For example, if you know you will have a monthly budget of $10,000 for the next 12 months, your end date will be the last day of the 12th month.

Transition from previous IO: Choose whether you want to "add to" or "replace" your previous IO. Replacing a previous IO will remove any remaining budget that has not yet been spent. If you "add to" your remaining budget, this new monthly budget will kick in as soon as the remaining budget runs out.

Monthly reset: You have the option to add this new monthly budget to what's left of your previous budget, or replace any unspent budget.

Capped budget

Choose this budget type when creating a new Insertion Order and follow these steps:

Cap: the maximum amount you can spend. This is not a spend commitment nor will it guarantee you will spend this entire amount.

Auto-renew (ON/OFF): You may want to set your budget on auto-renew so that you don’t need to add a new budget manually each time. With auto-renew, you’ll get a notification when your budget is about to renew.

Activation date: When you want your capped budget to start. If you don't choose an activation date, your budget will start right away.

End date: If your budget can't be spent past a certain date, you can select this date here.

Transition from previous IO: Choose whether you want to "add to" or "replace" your previous IO. Replacing a previous IO will remove any remaining budget that has not yet been spent. If you "add to" your remaining budget, this new monthly budget will kick in as soon as the remaining budget runs out.

Important note: While this is a flexible option, you will need to monitor budgets not set on auto-renew closely to ensure your campaign(s) don’t run out of budget and stop unexpectedly.

Daily budget

Choose this budget type when creating a new Insertion order, and simply set the daily amount you'd like to spend. If you don't see this budget type as an option, contact your Account Strategy team who can activate it for you.

Important note: Daily budget caps can put your campaign(s) at risk of decreased performance because, if set too low, campaigns will continuously start and stop. Each time a campaign restarts, the Criteo Engine will have to learn from stale data, impacting its ability to properly bid on ad impressions. So, if you’re using daily budgets, ensure that your budget and bidding strategy is aligned in order to keep your campaigns from regularly stopping and re-starting.

My capped budget is running low. How do I add more?

If you have a capped budget and it’s about to run out, a low budget warning icon will be displayed next to the affected campaign on your campaign management tab. Once you click on the icon, you can retrieve information on the remaining days and/or remaining amount. To add more budget, you will need to create a new one in the “Budgets” tab and click on "Add Insertion Order".

From here choose the capped budget type, the amount, and the dates. To add to your existing budget, choose the “add to” option. This will allow your new budget to kick in as soon as the existing budget runs out. If you choose to replace your budget, then the new budget will replace the remaining capped budget. Keep in mind that this doesn’t take into account the amount that’s already been spent.

Important note: If you create a new budget and there is a previously created one that is still pending for approval, the new one will cancel the previous one, regardless of the type, amount or dates.

What else should I know about setting budgets?

Your budget is NOT a spend commitment. You will only be billed for the total amount spent at the end of each month.

Your budgets will NOT automatically pace your spend across a given time period. To pace your budgets, you should have a proper bidding strategy and ensure you have enough budget to support this strategy.

Still not sure which budget is right for you? Contact your Account Strategy team.